WMC News & Features
Celebrating International Women's Day: Reflections from Natalie Portman, Maya Angelou
For the centenary of International Women's Day this week, Marianne Schnall samples assessments from a wide range of women on where we stand around the world.
WMC News & Features
In Zimbabwe: She Won't Be Stopped
The focus of the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women this year, in annual meetings ending today, is to promote women’s and girls’ access to education, training, science and technology. Here is one woman’s story.
WMC News & Features
Rape Myths Persist—Reactions to the Assault on Lara Logan
Even after decades of public discourse about the nature of sexual assault, rape is still misunderstood. Here, clinical psychologist Sheela Raja writes that it's past time to put the myths to rest.
WMC News & Features
"In Cairo: A Birth" a Poem by Egyptian Feminist Writer Mona Helmy
Egyptian feminist writer Mona Helmy celebrates a fragile beginning of life in her poem, transliterated by Robin Morgan.
WMC News & Features
From Tahrir Square: The City in the Field
Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi embraces a younger generation determined to achieve the revolutionary goals to which she and others have devoted their lives.
WMC News & Features
In Chile, a Spiritual Space for Activism
Women who formed the backbone of the antipoverty and human rights work of liberation theology in Latin America have organized for women's empowerment for decades.
WMC News & Features
December 17, 2010 | Peggy Simpson |
International
Micro-lender Fonkoze to the Rescue in Haiti
A micro-credit program and banking system for more than 200,000 women in Haiti has come to the rescue of the overall economy in the wake of the devastating earthquake. At a time when Haitian commercial banks remain closed, Fonkoze, the Haitian branch of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, mobilized over the weekend to get funds to its members in rural towns as well as Port-au-Prince.
WMC News & Features
How War Trounces Women's Rights
In her new book "Unmaking War, Remaking Men," feminist sociologist Kathleen Barry argues that by demanding a violent and aggressive masculinity—literally making men expendable—war precludes equality for women.
WMC News & Features
A Palestinian Midwife Who Defies the Odds
Feeza Shraim overcame violence and Israeli embargoes in the Gaza Strip to bring new life to her damaged homeland, as independent journalist Nida Khan recounts before Shraim receives her award from A...
WMC News & Features
The UN Steps Up to Women's Rights Challenges
Upon the appointment of Michelle Bachelet to head the UN's promising new women's agency, Shazia Z. Rafi, secretary-general of Parliamentarians for Global Action, explains how an international coalition of women effectively negotiated the UN power process to get us to this point.
WMC News & Features
September 16, 2010 | Michelle Dicinoski |
International
Australian Woman Prosecuted for Medical Abortion
In the state of Queensland, a young woman may face seven years in prison for allegedly taking the abortifacient RU486. Michelle Dicinoski, PhD, looks into the pro-choice advocates rallying around her case.
WMC News & Features
Out of the Ash Cloud: An Al Jazeera Festival Premiere
An American filmmaker reflects on screening her documentary on Muslim women religious leaders at the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival in Qatar.
WMC News & Features
September 01, 2010 | Emily Wilson |
International
Ancient Texts of Everyday Secrets
Arts commentator Emily Wilson talked to singer and composer Jewlia Eisenberg about her latest installation in San Francisco, a project that brings to life the ancient, secret writings of women in what is now Iraq.
WMC News & Features
Military Moms, Still Fighting
The promise of a homecoming next week for all combat troops stationed in Iraq is not the end of the struggle for commentator Cynthia Benjamin and other such mothers, whose sons and daughters still suffer the trauma of engagement.
WMC News & Features
AIDS Breakthrough for Women
In this second WMC report on the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Linda Villarosa explains why the development of a medicinal gel is both a lifesaving step forward for women and an affirmation of women and African Americans working to develop treatments.
WMC News & Features
HIV/AIDS: Raising a Clamor in Vienna
Already an award winning writer, our 14-year-old correspondent at the international HIV/AIDS conference, July 18 to 23, tells and shows us why it was important for her to be among the youth delegates struggling to have their voices heard.
WMC News & Features
Women's Response to Chile Earthquake Immediate and Ongoing
Journalist and human rights specialist Maxine Lowy reports that women's advocates have expanded their focus to help women rebuild their communities in southern Chile after the devastating earthquake of 2010.
WMC News & Features
Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard—Poised to Hold Her Own
Australia's first woman PM is unusual in more ways than one, and feminists such as political scientist/author/poet Susan Hawthorne are cautiously optimistic.
WMC News & Features
Honoring Helen Thomas
In the wake of veteran reporter Helen Thomas's resignation from the White House Press Corps after her controversial comments, photojournalist Jenny Warburg and urban educational leader Linda Belans honor Thomas's trailblazing career as a journalist.
WMC News & Features
The Ground We Stand On
In Zimbabwe, Kenya and other countries wrested from colonial powers, women must look to their own rich heritage for security and rights, argues the author, Kenyan feminist and scholar Achola O. Pala.
WMC News & Features
I’ve Seen First Hand What CEDAW Can Do
The author, chief of the Africa Division of UNIFEM, explains the power of the UN treaty to eliminate discrimination against women—a potent tool that will only gain in strength with ratification by the United States.
WMC News & Features
Global Moms Bill: An Opening for the Administration to Keep Its Promises?
President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have voiced concern for women’s safety and health around the world. Legislation introduced this month in the House calls for specific steps to meet that commitment in regard to mothers dying in childbirth.
WMC News & Features
Rhonda Copelon—An Architect of Feminist Human Rights Law
When Rhonda Copelon died this month of ovarian cancer, she was 65 and the influence of her ground-breaking legal career could be appreciated around the world. Here, adapted from a tribute at an awards ceremony last year, friend and colleague Charlotte Bunch describes her extraordinary personal and professional contributions.
WMC News & Features
Shining a Light Under the Veil
The author, whose interviews have been widely published, talks to playwright Mary Apick about the stories of women who spend their public lives shielded from our view.
WMC News & Features
Saving the Earth: What Science Can’t Accomplish
As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the author describes how women have worked to break through the seemingly impervious bureaucracy at the UN to finally impress on world leaders that saving the earth depends on guaranteeing women equal rights and status.